And I said, "Well you know what if they won't give me a great part I'll write one myself." I wrote a five minute thing about this killing I saw when I was 9 years old and performed it for my theater company and they were all stunned. Each week I would write 10 minutes, and at the end of about 10 months I had a 90 minute, one person show where I had a movie on stage and I played all the parts.Īcademy Award-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri has more than 55 movies to his credit as an actor, writer, and director including, "The Usual Suspects," "Bullets Over Broadway" and "A Bronx Tale" which he wrote. And I drove home in my little dumpy car, got back to my dumpy apartment and I sat on the edge of the bed and I saw the card that my father always said to me, "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent." And I had it on my refrigerator. And 15 minutes later I got fired just like he said. Turns out it was powerful talent agent Swifty Lazar and. On December 30, 1993, Irving Lazar, undoubtedly the most famous talent agent of all time, who was universally known as Swifty, but woe to you if he ever heard you call him that, died, at age 86. Swifty Lazar was the biggest agent in the world at the time, the most powerful agent in the world. Chazz Palminteri grew up on the corner of East 187th Street and Belmont Avenue in the Bronx. "I said yeah, yeah sure." It was Swifty Lazar. And finally, I wouldn't let this guy in one night because he was really rude to me and I said, "I'm sorry." And he said, "Do you know who I am?" And I said, "Yeah you're the guy who's not getting in tonight." So he got really mad at that and he said to me, "You will be fired in 15 minutes." he refused entry to super agent Swifty Lazar. I took a job as a doorman at a really swanky club and I was really very good - I was talking to people you know. Discovered by Robert De Niro and Chazz Palminteri when they were casting for the. I want to do other things, you know?" Well, you know I ran out of money at the time - this was 1988 and I ran out of money after making money from those shows and I said, "Well do I go back to New York?" And then I said, "Well no. So you were a struggling actor back in the 80's and you didn't like the parts you were getting.ĬP: You know I did get on "Hill Street Blues" and a bunch of shows and it paid the rent and everything but I said, "Hey you know I'm more than this. Watch the above video to see how Chazz's life story made it to the big screen after turning down $1 million for the rights and being told it would "never get made."īQ: It's such an interesting story, how the story came to be. NEW YORK (1010 WINS) - In this installment of "22 Minutes," Brigitte Quinn sits down with actor Chazz Palminteri to talk about the new musical based on his life, "A Bronx Tale: The New Musical" which begins previews at the Longacre Theatre Nov.
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